Clivage au Moi à l’adolescence : du retrait social à la menace de perte du lien au monde interne

Abstract

ObjectiveThe aim of this article is to re-examine the concept of ego splitting proposed by R. Roussillon in the psychopathological and psychoanalytical fields, based on a clinical case of a teenage hikikomori. In a conceptual approach, our article addresses a specific form of splitting which, beyond a vision, only focuses on its defensive and deficient aspects, can also be understood as a first form of self-appropriation. It then becomes a part of a process of identity construction. MethodBased on a qualitative analysis of several clinical interviews with an adolescent, this article aims to demonstrate the extent to which the therapeutic encounter setting in a Care Center, with the support of virtual mediation, can allow for the reappropriation of some parts of the self that were initially split off. Additionally, a conceptual exploration of ego splitting, notably through the notion of verwerfung as well as the reading of a profound splitting proposed by S. Ferenczi, allows us to better understand its manifestations, depending on whether it is seen as a developmental need or a psychopathological disorder. ResultThe developmental stakes associated with ego splitting in adolescents are multiple. Sometimes very similar to a peritraumatic dissociation, ego splitting illustrates the subject's defenses when faced with an event which the psyche cannot deal with, and thus severs an entire part of his subjectivity. It is also about the experience of the newly pubescent body and the adolescent's rejection of it, which was emphasized in the concept of developmental breakdown. Finally, it can lead to a form of withdrawal or social isolation such as with the hikikomori disorder, and certainly other outcomes depending on the subject's evolution. In all cases, this evolution remains uncertain. If different forms of psychopathology can manifest themselves, ego splitting however can signify a form of self-immersion, in an attempt to reappropriate certain painful or unsymbolized elements from his past history. DiscussionThere is a type of splitting, which is not only a defense that can lead to feelings of fragmentation and derealization in the worst-case scenarios. It can also be inscribed in the borderline process of identity construction, a form of temporary dissociation of the patient, or schize, allowing parts of the self to return in a sort of retroactive loop, as an informer of the current state of the ego. In adolescence, this process is particularly active, due to the integration of the newly pubescent body. Either the subject, depending on his psychoaffective maturation, will enquire about the ongoing processes in progress in his inner world (his phantasmatic life, integration of the sexual body, etc.); or the splitting reduction takes place through a receptive and transformational function of the object, aligning this process with a form of “crossed” intersubjectivity. ConclusionThinking about the subject, especially during in his teenage years, as he encounters forms of dissociations which are not only the expression of a vulnerability, allows us to maintain a clinical vision which supports a potential for growth, a resilient capacity of the ego. The way we consider different outcomes of ego splitting in this article supports a dynamic approach of the psychological functioning, which places the subject in a continuum between what is normal and what is pathological. Splitting of the ego, as a borderline process, allows for a different reading of the underlying stakes of the contemporary expression of narcissistic and identity-related suffering. It also gives a dynamic perspective to what is usually a nosographic approach.